Night Veil is coming.
Qingse Hotel, In the seemingly simple and plain lobby, Long Zhanye arrived quietly.
This time, after receiving Long Zhanye's advice, Chen An obviously kept a low profile.
Instead of greeting him in person, he sent a capable subordinate to greet Long Zhanye outside and took him to the VIP area.
After passing through the familiar passage and the gorgeous corridor, Long Zhanye was introduced into an exquisite VIP room.
Soon, a piece of information was delivered to Long Zhanye.
This information records the performance and some comments of Spirit Master who qualified in the previous competition.
After entering the official competition stage, the number was changed once.
This started from the previous round. The numbers of this round have also begun to have practical significance.
The number of Long Zhanye is, thirty-six.
This is obviously a good number specially chosen by Chen An to cater to him. Six or six will be a lucky draw.
Long Zhanye briefly browsed the information.
After the previous two rounds of Soul Engineer, so far, there are still 67 people left on the Xishui Alliance's side.
In the previous round, there were more than ninety people.
In other words, more than thirty people were eliminated in the first round of the main competition.
The elimination rate is quite low.
Among these sixty-seven people, a dozen were specially marked by Chen An.
Some are marked "Byes for this round". These people performed particularly well in the previous round and will advance directly to this round without participating in the competition.
Some are marked with "suspected hidden strength". These people have average results on the surface, but Chen An suspects that they have reservations.
Long Zhanye's eyes swept over the numbers, and every number and every label was quickly imprinted in his mind.
Know yourself and the enemy, and you will be victorious in every battle.
Understanding your opponent is very important.
And Chen An, through his stick and carrot approach.
Now I completely believe in his fictitious identity.
The identity from "Holy Spirit Cult".
Long Zhanye closed the document and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.
Soon, the voice of Chen An sounded throughout the audience.
The voice spread throughout the Golden Hall through Amplification Soul Tool, clear and loud:
"Ladies and gentlemen--"
He paused, with a bit of excitement in his tone:
"I'm very happy that the second round of our competition is about to begin!"
"Please keep quiet and give our powerful Soul Engineers a quiet environment to produce Soul Tool."
"Because there are still a large number of people in this round, there are still Soul Engineer who need to complete the production in the audience."
"Therefore, the entire process is still silent. Anyone who makes a sound will be removed from the stage!"
"Okay, let me announce the rules of this round..."
When Chen An announced the rules, Long Zhanye had already browsed through the materials prepared by the Xishui Alliance on the competition stage.
Compared with the previous round, the materials in this round are much richer.
There are as many as ten types of Rare Metal, Mithril, Star Sand, Darksteel, Red Copper... each one is an excellent material.
There are more than twenty kinds of ordinary metals, ranging from the most common Refined Iron to the rarer Cold Iron.
The only problem is that each metal weighs no more than two kilograms.
In other words, unless you bring your own materials, there is no way to make a large Soul Tool.
We can only make those small Soul Tools that are exquisite, portable, and not necessarily less powerful.
Moreover, in the last sentence of announcing the rules, Chen An specially added:
"For the sake of fairness in the competition, each Soul Engineer can only be made using the metals prepared by the organizer."
"After the production of Soul Tool is completed, it will be weighed as soon as possible to ensure that there is no cheating."
Long Zhanye still appreciates Xishui Alliance's approach.
Even though they are underground forces, this principle of fairness is maintained quite well.
Do not give some people the opportunity to bring their own best materials to crush their opponents, and let everyone compete on the same starting line.
In this way, the competition is not about whose materials are better, but whose technology is higher.
"Okay--"
Chen An's voice sounded again, "Everyone Soul Engineer, please prepare."
The whole place fell silent instantly.
Everyone's eyes are focused on the competition stage.
"Game--"
Chen An took a deep breath and suddenly waved his right hand:
"Start now!"
"Timer starts! Timekeeper is in place!"
Because gambling is involved, timing is very important.
There are as many as ten people responsible for keeping time, including civilian representatives, nobles, Spirit Master, Soul Engineer, and some representative figures from other industries.
They are scattered around the competition stage, each holding an hourglass synchronized with the main timer to ensure nothing goes wrong.
Make sure as much as possible that no one will cheat.
Long Zhanye reached out his hand unhurriedly and took a piece of silver-white metal from the pile of materials.
Mithril.
He put Mithril into Shaping Soul Tool, but did not start the operation immediately.
His hands seemed to be adjusting the device, but his spirit Divine Power had quietly unfolded.
The invisible spiritual tentacles, like a precise net, instantly enveloped the entire competition stage.
His target is exactly those two people--
Number 96.
Number ninety-eight.
No need to use his eyes to see, he can clearly grasp their every move, every rise and fall of Engraving Knife.
As soon as he started observing, Long Zhanye was secretly surprised.
Number 96 and No. 98, the two Soul Engineer, move very quickly.
Each took a piece of metal and started making it.
There was no hesitation or pause, as if the shape of the metal and the trajectory of Engraving Knife had been rehearsed thousands of times in their minds.
As the saying goes, a connoisseur will know if something is there as soon as he reaches out his hand.
These two Soul Engineer are not only skilled in movements, but also have a great sense of rhythm.
Although it is fast and not chaotic, every movement is seamlessly connected, like clouds and flowing water.
Not only did the two of them look calm, their hands were terrifyingly stable.
The hand holding Engraving Knife did not tremble or shift at all.
The moment the blade comes into contact with the metal, it makes a subtle and even "swishing" sound.
Every movement is precise to the millimeter, and every cut is just right.
They did not use the auxiliary tools on the Soul Tool production table, but each took out a Engraving Knife and started carving directly.
But what attracted Long Zhanye's attention even more was the Engraving Knife in the hands of these two Soul Engineer.
That's no ordinary Engraving Knife.
Number 96 Soul Engineer holds a dark red Engraving Knife in his hand.
The Engraving Knife itself doesn't look like it's made of metal.
Because the closer to the blade edge, the thinner Engraving Knife becomes. From the handle to the tip, the color shows a strange gradient:
Dark red, fiery red, light red, and finally almost completely transparent to the blade.
Very peculiar.
Its body seems to be carved from some kind of jade.
That warm luster and transparent texture cannot be imitated by any metal.
On one side of Engraving Knife, pieces of cloud pattern extend downward, and are carved extremely delicately.
And at the blade's edge, there was a faint blade glow.
The sword light is not strong, you have to look carefully to see it.
But just because of this subtle blade light, Engraving Knife itself becomes extremely sharp.
Carving the hard metal is as easy as carving tofu!
The Engraving Knife in the hands of No. 98 Soul Engineer is also very unusual.
It was a dark cyan Engraving Knife, which was obviously one size larger than the ordinary Engraving Knife. It felt quite heavy when held in the hand.
There is a faint trace of rust on the blade, but it doesn't look like real rust.
The rust showed a simple dark blue color and was distributed very regularly, as if it were some kind of special texture.
The blade is simple and elegant, with a dragon-shaped relief on each side.
The dragon sculpture is lifelike, with its eyes wide open and its whiskers fluttering, as if it is about to rise into the sky at any time.
When Soul Power was injected, the blade actually made a slight dragon roar!
Every time the knife goes down, the metal surface engraved by it will add a layer of light cyan, and then quickly disappear.
There are vague Wind Attribute waves emanating from the metal, as if the Engraving Knife has given it some special properties.
Long Zhanye's pupils shrank slightly.
This is...Ranked Engraving Knife?!!